Is it time to cancel Ken Burns on PBS? It is not easy to be a white, male and cisgender filmmaker nowadays on the taxpayer-funded public television network. Burns achieved immense success with his documentaries made for PBS and was generously rewarded for his work there. A group of nearly 140 filmmakers and other professionals is criticizing PBS for the lack of diversity behind the scenes. Their complaint says that there is a lot of Ken Burns.
A group of people including filmmakers, producers, directors, executives and programmers signed on with their support after an essay by a Korean-American filmmaker was published by the Ford Foundation. The goal was to file a complaint that PBS is too dependent on Burns, “America’s storyteller,” for its programming. The awake ones are going against the network itself, that is, for what seems to be professional jealousy.
Grace Lee, an independent producer, director and writer who works on narrative and non-fictional films, according to her signature on the rehearsal, credits her career to PBS. She now asks “how much does PBS reflect the target audience?” She compares the time devoted to Burns’ documentaries with her own, which was about Asian Americans.
In 1967, amid widespread civil unrest, the CPB was created by a Congressional law “to expand and develop a diversity of programming dependent on freedom, imagination and initiative at the local and national level”. PBS was founded in 1969 to interconnect public television stations and distribute programs. Fifty-one years later, when we went through another social breakdown and racial assessment, to what extent does PBS reflect the target audience?
I take this issue seriously because I owe a large part of my documentary career to PBS. In 2020, I was a producer of Asian Americans, an innovative series for which we had five hours to tell 150 years of history, from the Chinese who built the railroads to the targeted South Asians after 9/11. Compare that to 16 hours of Country Music, which also aired in 2020, or 13 hours of Roosevelts – both by Ken Burns. His 2021 list includes four hours each in Ernest Hemingway, Muhammad Ali, Benjamin Franklin and American Buffalo. When bison deserves 80% of the airtime allocated to Asian American history, it questions not only the leadership of public television, but also who can tell these stories and why.
She argues using the fact that Burns is a white man and the reliance on his documentaries for PBS programming is perpetuating racial and cultural inequalities. She criticizes PBS for ignoring blacks, indigenous people and other color filmmakers.
“The interdependence of decades of PBS decision makers, philanthropists and corporate financiers with a white and male filmmaker highlights the racial and cultural inequalities perpetuated by this system. The number of hours of broadcast, financial support (from viewers like who?) And marketing muscle dedicated to the lenses of a man in America cut PBS from its roots, ”said Grace Lee.
PBS responded, but that response was not satisfactory for the group of 140 professionals.
In an e-mailed statement, a PBS spokesman noted that of the more than 200 hours of documentaries scheduled to be shown this year, 35% are produced by several filmmakers. A total of 55 percent present BIPOC talents, are produced by several filmmakers or cover topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
“For more than 50 years, reflecting the full extent of the American experience has been central to PBS’s mission and work. As a home for documentaries in America, we use our national platform to broaden a wide range of perspectives shared by diverse storytellers, ”said the spokesman. “While we have a solid foundation for inclusive programming, we recognize that there is more to be done and welcome the ongoing dialogue on this extremely important issue.”
The group has questions.
“As the leader of the public broadcasting system, you are responsible for committing yourself to an open and sustained public dialogue. Questioning whether PBS could be doing better should not be seen as an attack, but as an opportunity for meaningful dialogue and action and to involve BIPOC filmmakers as we lay out a course to follow ”, said the letter, which asks:
“How many HOURS of non-fiction PBS television have been directed or produced by BIPOC filmmakers compared to white filmmakers in the past ten years?
Of all spending on non-fiction PBS television in the past ten years, what percentage has been directed or produced by BIPOC filmmakers?
Of the top 25 production companies that have produced most of the content for PBS in the past ten years, when measured according to budget, how many of them are led by BIPOC versus whites?
How many members of the PBS management team (including individual stations and main strands) are BIPOC vs. whites? How do these numbers compare to the numbers ten years ago? ”
AP reports that PBS President and CEO said: “I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to work with Ken Burns, whose legacy is extraordinary and, as we look to the future, has a rich pipeline of programs that he is bringing for public television ”.
President and CEO Paula Kerger was asked on Tuesday about an essay by filmmaker Grace Lee, who argued that public TV’s deep attachment to Burns, whose series includes “The Civil War” and “Baseball”, despises viewers.
“I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to work with Ken Burns, whose legacy is extraordinary and as we look to the future, he has a very rich line of programs that he is bringing to public television,” said Kerger in a session virtual question and answer with critics of television Association.
“We created a lot of opportunities for many filmmakers,” said Kerger. Burns “mentors a number of filmmakers who now have well-established careers … and he has a deep commitment to mentoring a number of filmmakers.”
She said she “respectfully disagrees” with Lee’s arguments in an essay last fall for the Ford Foundation.
When questioned during a panel of television critics this week, Ken Burns defended the themes of his documentaries. “What’s coming up is incredibly diverse in every sense of the meaning of that word,” said Burns.
Ken Burns is not known as a liberal filmmaker like Michael Moore or Spike Lee. Perhaps that is why he is being chosen. PBS has the right to choose who to present. Burns has decades of professional experience and deserves the credit he receives. His documentaries are popular and bring high ratings to PBS. Why wouldn’t they continue to use you as their star documentary filmmaker? Ms. Lee had the opportunity and even admits that she has to thank PBS for showing her documentary. The relationship between PBS and Burns is beneficial to both parties. Burns is not jumping to streaming services, instead, he promises his loyalty to stay on PBS. PBS gives him creative freedom and less restrictions than, say, Netflix or another streaming service would be able to allow.
“I could have gone a few years ago to a premium cable or streaming channel and say, with my track record, ‘I need $ 30 million to make Vietnam,’ and they would have given it to me,” said Burns. “But what they wouldn’t have given me is 10 and a half years. PBS gave me 10 ½ years. They gave me six and a half at Ernest Hemingway. “
It looks like Ms. Lee will have to find her own niche in the documentary production business. Blaming race and diversity for everything doesn’t always work.